The Simon Fraser Memorial Lecture

Join us for the first event in our series celebrating a Hundred Years of Community Ownership. The lecture, which featured music and song and a conversation between four special guests, was dedicated to the memory of Simon Fraser, a solicitor and pioneer of land reform in Scotland. Simon was instrumental in the success of some of the early community buyouts including Eigg, Knoydart and Gigha as well as the Assynt Crofters buyout.

Simon said of the Eigg buyout ”It is a triumph for all that is good in humanity and certainly one in the eye for everything that is mean-spirited and self-seeking.”

The guests reflected on Simon’s life and contribution to land reform, the history and cultural significance of the last 100 years of reform and what the next 100 years may look like.

Guests

• Agnes Rennie – Vice Chair of Community Land Scotland and Chair of Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn
• Ann Fraser – Simon Fraser’s wife
• Maggie Fyffe – Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust
• Karine Polwart – award winning songwriter, folk singer and storyteller